%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1360619056001420100%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.%%[[quoteright:350:[[Film/MenInBlack http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/noisy-cricket_350_1938.jpg]]]][[caption-width-right:350:"Feels like I'm gonna break this damn thing!"]]

->''"It's a Derringer, Smithy. Small but effective. Last time I used it, fella took two whole days to die. Bled to death inside, was real, real painful."''-->-- '''"Mad Dog" Tannen''', ''Film/BackToTheFuture Part III''

A character treats a small firearm with contempt. The firearm will likely be physically small and will probably fire small-caliber ammunition, which is considered by some users to be weak.

There is [[TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs a common perception]] that any round smaller than a .38 Special is essentially a joke bullet unable to do any real damage. The truth is that BulletsDoNotWorkThatWay. Guns, by definition, are weapons that are designed to kill. Just about any gun made today can inflict a mortal wound in one shot, though a small caliber bullet probably won't drop you on the spot. Even the oft mocked .22 Short can tear deep enough into a human body to tear major veins and arteries, and if the bullet reaches the throat or vital organs the damage ''will'' be severe. Even air weapons firing small pellets at low speed can inflict lethal injuries if they hit someone in a critical area such as the temple or the heart. This is exactly why airsoft events have very strictly enforced safety rules about minimum engagement distances and protective equipment. It's also why it's both frequently forbidden and a bad idea to use frozen paint balls.

The idea that small-caliber and/or low-powered weapons are useless in combat probably comes from the somewhat vague notion of "stopping power". There is a very wide difference between a bullet that will reliably kill something and a bullet that will reliably kill them right away. The humble .22 Long Rifle has killed nearly every land animal on Earth, including elephants, but the fact that it often takes hours or days for the target to die doesn't help you if, say, a bear is mauling you ''right now''. Bigger bullets tend to have a lot of stopping power, even being capable of being an InstantDeathBullet on occasion, while smaller ones require either excellent marksmanship or incredible luck to hurt the target badly enough to stop it from fighting back. For example: President RonaldReagan didn't even notice that he had been shot by an assassin until a touch search minutes later, but the wound nearly killed him within the hour.

Often popular as a {{Hidden Weapon|s}} stored in VictoriasSecretCompartment. For the opposite end of the spectrum, see HandCannon and {{BFG}}.----!!Examples:

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]* ''Manga/{{Akumetsu}}'': The eponymous character states that .22 slugs aren't good at doing a lot of damage. Later despite several bodyguards' successful shots to various parts of his body, he powers through to kill one of his targets.* In ''Manga/MasterKeaton'', a cop tells a suicidal man not to shoot himself in the head with a .22, because it's more likely to leave him an invalid than to kill him.* Meryl Strife of ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' gets some mockery over her WeaponOfChoice, the derringer, both because of its two-shot capacity and its low penetration. She overcomes the former problem by carrying several dozen at a time.** The justification for her choice of weapon seems to be that, in accordance to this trope, it's treated as a nonlethal weapon due to its small caliber. Thus, she can use it with impunity and not worry about deaths or serious collateral damage (which is a reasonable concern for an insurance representative). Her partner Millie uses the opposite approach, a huge stun-gun whose slugs spread out in to a cross pattern to reduce stopping power. This would similarly be potentially lethal in real life (at the very least, it would tend to cause a lot of broken bones), but in the work it just knocks people over. At one point she knocks over a truck by shooting it twice.* Subverted on ''Manga/BlackLagoon.'' While Fritz Stanford is bragging about the enormous handgun he plans to use to kill Revy, a custom-built gold-plated Luger chambered for .454 Casull, she's loading her regular handgun, a custom-built 9mm Beretta, and shoots him before he can finish speaking. Before she finishes him off, she tell him that "if you can hit your target, pretty much any gun will do the trick."* In ''Manga/DesertPunk'', Kosuna shoots one goon coming at her several times with her small handgun and he barely even flinches. Although she learns a ridiculously huge gun wouldn't be best either, Kanta does end up getting her a more powerful sub-machine gun by the end.* In the episode "High School Nudical" in ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'', the ghost of the week steals Panty's.. panties, which prevented her from summoning her gun to kill him off. She starts grabbing the underwear of all the boys in school, transforming all of them into guns to see what she can get. All of them are puny, worthless, and useless little guns fitting the same general size and shape as the trope image. A great amount of visual innuendo makes it quite clear the guns' sizes were directly proportionate to the size of the boys' dicks... When she grabs Brief's underwear, she's rewarded with a shotgun that blows the ghost away in one hit, but is only good for that one shot.[[/folder]]

[[folder:ComicBooks]]* ''ComicBook/SinCity'':** In the comic ''A Dame To Kill For'', the main character, Dwight, is shot up pretty badly by the title character, a FemmeFatale to the last. As Marv is hauling him to Old Town, he comments: "...Here I am jabbering with you leaking all over the place. You're damn lucky all that dame had was a .32 -- we wouldn't even be having this conversation if she'd used a real gun on you. Even so, getting shot in the face isn't high on my list of how to have a good time."** And later, when Dwight [[spoiler: changes his faces]] and comes back to confront said FemmeFatale, all he's able to conceal up his sleeve is "a crummy little .25", all six rounds of which are nowhere near enough to stop Manute (the bullets were used against his MadeOfIron body rather than his head).** It seems carrying anything smaller than a .45 Automatic or a .357 Magnum is a good way to lose a gunfight in Sin City (unless you're [[{{Badass}} Wallace]]), as many of its denizens are either ImmuneToBullets or MadeOfIron.* In an issue of ''JonSableFreelance'', a woman threatens Sable with a small .22 caliber pistol. He's more disdainful of the weapon than afraid.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]* Creator/BusterKeaton sports a ridiculous tiny gun in ''Film/GoWest''. After once being unable to retrieve it when it falls to the bottom of the holster he's wearing, he ties a string to it.* Film/JamesBond originally carried a Beretta 418 (.25 calibre) before switching to his signature Walther PPK. Behind the scenes, the change happened after one Geoffrey Boothroyd – [[{{Tuckerization}} for whom the character who would become Q would be named]] – wrote to Fleming objecting to the use of the Beretta. From ''Film/DrNo'':-->'''M:''' This damn Beretta again. I've told you about this before. You tell him -- for the last time.\\'''Armourer:''' Nice and light -- in a lady's handbag. No stopping power....\\'''M:''' You'll carry the Walther. Unless you'd prefer to go back to standard intelligence duties?\\'''Bond:''' No, sir. I would not.\\'''M:''' Then from now on you carry a different gun. Show him, Armourer.\\'''Armourer:''' Walther PPK. 7.65mm with a delivery like a brick through a plate-glass window.** The film version, ironically, gets it backwards; in that scene, Bond is instead turning in the Beretta 1934 in .380 ACP, which M continues to disparage as he proceeds to force Bond to use a ''lower''-caliber weapon (not that it matters too much, since the actual Walther used in the film was the larger PP in the same caliber as the M1934). Calibre size is not the only reason he has to turn it in, as his [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns Beretta had jammed on him]] and he was wounded as a result.** The 4.2mm handgun used by ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'' should be this, but since it's only used by Scaramanga, who has ImprobableAimingSkills, every shot is an instant one-hit kill. Bond-based video games that include the gun continue to make it an instant kill as a MythologyGag, no matter ''who'' uses it or where they shoot their target.** In ''Film/LicenceToKill'', when Bond meets up with [[ActionGirl Pam]] [[AcePilot Bouvier]], she asks him if he's armed. He shows her his PPK, which she derides. She shows him her [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter shotgun]] and tells him to just stay down if trouble happens.* In ''Film/KissKissBangBang'', Gay Perry has a tiny Derringer that he refers to as his "faggot gun," because "it's only good for a couple of shots and then you gotta drop it for something better". Given the film's penchant for subversion, the little gun ends up being quite fatal.* Invoked in ''Film/BackToTheFuture Part III'', where Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen threatens Doc with a derringer specifically because it will make his death slow and painful, mentioning a guy who took ''two days'' to die of his wounds.* In ''Film/MenInBlack'', the "noisy cricket" is the size of a small, cheap water pistol, and it's dismissed as "completely useless." It blows a hole through a completely sealed door, and sends you [[BlownAcrossTheRoom flying the opposite direction]] almost as fast. The funny thing is that it functionally ''is'' near-useless, but for the exact opposite reason of what it looks like it would be.** [[AllThereInTheManual Background materials]] suggest that the Noisy Cricket's standard function is significantly toned down from what is seen; it's meant to be a [[HiddenWeapons holdout gun]]. It's given in an overpowered state to rookie agents as an object lesson... or a form of hazing. In MIB 2, Agent K [[spoiler: in his neuralized state]] is given one that does not have the comical level of overcharging, and in [[WesternAnimation/MenInBlack the animated series]] J receives a silencer for his that reduces the power of each shot but also allows him to continue standing while firing it.* In ''Film/Tremors4TheLegendBegins'' an Eastern dandy shows up in a Nevada mining town, and prefers to use one of these, even when confronted with giant burrowing worm-monsters. It's an additional joke in that the man's [[IdenticalGrandson previously-seen descendant]] is a rifle-toting [[CrazySurvivalist survivalist]].* In ''Film/MrAndMrsSmith'', the eponymous characters are getting guns from a stash. Mrs. Smith complains when she is given the visibly smaller "girl gun."* In ''Film/InBruges'', Ray steals a Smith & Wesson Model 60 from Eirik and [[EyeScream shoots him in the eye]] [[CombatPragmatist with a blank round]]. When Ken comes to kill him and prevents his suicide, he compares weapons with him, lamenting that he has "a bloody girl's gun".* In ''Film/TheBoondockSaintsIIAllSaintsDay'', Romeo is given a dinky little .22 caliber pistol on his first vigilante mission as a form of hazing. It's so small it can't even be used for a decent PistolWhipping.* In ''Film/TheEnforcer'', when asked why he carries a HandCannon, Harry explains that he's seen shots from a .38 bounce off a car windshield, something shots from his .44 magnum have never done.* At the end of ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'', [=McClane=] asks for a gun and is given a tiny revolver of which he is extremely disdainful. Subverted in that he manages to take out the helicopter attacking him with it by shooting some overhead power lines.* Subverted in ''Film/TheGuard''. When Gerry is given a tipoff from a young boy about a stash of weapons, he discovers that the boy has taken a Derringer from the stash. Gerry keeps it for himself, along with a Glock and a Kalashnikov. Later, when O'Leary pays him a visit, he has been CrazyPrepared enough to keep the Derringer [[PantsPositiveSafety stashed in his pants]] and uses it to kill O'Leary. It takes O'Leary some time to die, but even when he's still alive, the puny round is enough to keep him from returning fire.* In ''Film/BigTroubleInLittleChina'', Jack, Wang and Eddie loot a shotgun, a submachinegun, and a snub-nose revolver from some mooks. The unwanted revolver is passed around until Eddie gets stuck with it.* Scaled up to vehicle size in ''Film/ThePentagonWars''. The first Bradley prototype sports but a single M2 machine gun. For comparison, the same weapon when not hooked up to an armored vehicle is the standard definition of a {{BFG}}. One of the reviewing Generals openly mocks it before ordering a turret-mounted cannon and missiles added on. Then deconstructed:-->"Now, that is a big gun."\\"Yeah, and that's a problem."\\"...Why...is that...a problem?"\\"You go into combat with that pecker sticking out of your turret, the enemy is going to unload on you with everything they've got."* Inverted by ''Film/TaxiDriver''. Travis buys four guns, one [[HandCannon .44 Magnum]] and three smaller pistols. The guy selling him the guns tells him that the .44 is AwesomeButImpractical and, indeed, Travis only manages to use it to [[{{Fingore}} blow a man's hand off]] while his actual kills are made with the smaller guns.* The main villain of ''Film/HardBoiled'', Johnny Wong, mocks the police's .38 special revolvers for this trope. Ironically [[spoiler:Johnny is killed by Tequila at the end of the movie with [[MoeGreeneSpecial a well placed shot to the eye]] using the very weapon Johnny mocked]].* In the first ''Film/PoliceAcademy'' film, the cadets are issued standard police revolvers. [[GunNut Tackleberry]] picks his up with a hugely disappointed look on his face. Cut to the next scene where he uses his HandCannon (a gift from his mother, no less) to obliterate targets on the firing range.* During the StormingTheCastle sequence of ''Film/TangoAndCash'', Cash winds up unarmed at one point and asks Tango for a weapon. Tango passes him a tiny revolver which he complains about. [[PlotHole Strangely enough, Cash seems to have forgotten about the BAP he's been carrying for half the film]].* In the Creator/StanleyKubrick movie of ''{{Lolita}}'', a drunk Claire Quilty giggles over the darlin' little gun Humbert is about to kill him with. [[RasputinianDeath It takes several shots to do so, too]]. Quilty's FamousLastWords are a petulant, "Ow, that hurts!"* Averted in ''Sword of Gideon'' (1986). The Mossad firearms instructor tells a recruit (a former army commando) to pick a gun from a table full of them. Smiling, the recruit grabs a .44 Magnum revolver.-->'''Instructor:''' Who do you think you are: ClintEastwood? You are not goddamn DirtyHarry! You want to carry cannon in your pocket? You are agent, secret agent. In your job, this is your gun: .22 calibre Beretta. Oh, you want [[{{BFG}} big gun]]? [snip] If your enemy tank, no gun big enough. You want bazooka. [[BoringButPractical If your enemy man, little gun enough.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* In the first of the Creator/TomClancy's ''NetForce'' books, a female assassin carries around a .22 pistol, favoring its discretion and concealability. She then proceeds to work around the "stopping power" issue by shooting her target in the [[EyeScream eye]].* ''Literature/JackRyan'':** In ''Without Remorse'', John Kelly--a former SEAL--routinely uses a caliber conversion kit for his Colt .45 down to .22, since it's much harder to suppress the former. He's a master marksman, so his workaround the whole stopping power issue is to get relatively close and go for PrettyLittleHeadshots.** ''Literature/ClearAndPresentDanger'' has another aversion. A pair of assassins gets into a gun battle with an off-duty police officer and the neighbor kid fires on them with his .22 rifle. The police officer is killed and the assassins flee (the kid tries unsuccessfully to shoot them through their getaway car, but .22 rimfire bullets definitely don't have that ability). When investigators find their car one of the assassins has bled to death inside. The investigators reason that it was the kid who killed him, as the police officer had a subnose revolver at long range, while the kid had a rifle. The .22 rounds don't kill instantly, either. One assassin gets hit in the head, but doesn't die until he goes to investigate his other wounds, which causes the weakened blood vessels in his head to let go, essentially a case of YourHeadAsplode.* Defied in ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Turn Coat]]''. Morgan tries to shoot [[spoiler:Molly]] with a .22. When Harry arrives, Murphy says that such a small caliber gun might have meant Morgan was only shooting to wound, since it would've been hard to kill anyone with it. Harry ''immediately'' shoots this down because Morgan would ''never'' shoot a [[spoiler:suspected warlock]] to wound, and points out the only reason Morgan used such a small gun is because it was all he had.** In ''Fool Moon'', the [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent loup-garou]] can only be harmed by [[SilverHasMysticPowers inherited silver]]. Murphy has some jewelry that qualifies, and the equipment to cast it into {{Silver Bullet}}s, but only for her .22 target pistol rather than her service weapon, to Harry's annoyance. Since the loup-garou also has a HealingFactor, she only manages to slow it down a bit, until it gets into point-blank range - [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets just after she empties her mag]].* ''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide'' states that ''because'' a .22 bullet doesn't have as much penetrative power as other ammo, a headshot is likely to result in the bullet bouncing around inside the skull rather than punching through the back, doing lots of damage to the brain even if the initial shot might not have been a kill. This, it should be noted, is a common and widely held belief about .22 ammo that is ''totally wrong''. .223 rifle rounds will do extra damage by tumbling end-over-end upon striking a soft target, but that's not the same thing as claiming that a .22 round will continuously ricochet around inside someone's noggin like a pinball, because they definitely don't do that in real life. A .22 LR or Short round is more likely than most to stay in a skull rather than punching all the way through after a headshot, but that's simply because the bullet has less energy than a more powerful round would and thus it takes less resistance to get it to stop moving entirely.[[note]]The Guide still recommends .22 ammunition weapons for several other reasons, namely because they're great for packing light, comparatively easy to operate, and available at almost any gun store.[[/note]]* [[TheDragon Wolfie]] in ''Literature/{{Incompetence}}'' carries a Derringer that Harry surmises is only good for shooting people in the eye at point blank range. Thus, he doesn't even bother to use it against [[spoiler: Klingferm]], who is armed with something a little more useful in a firefight.* No calibers are mentioned, but a small, [[BlingBlingBang ornate]] gun appears briefly in ''The Grand Ellipse''. It's compared to a bee sting.* In the DaleBrown novel ''Shadows of Steel'', BigBad Iranian general Buzhazi is nearly assassinated, but though he is wounded he doesn't die because he manages to get treatment in time. It is said that if the assassin had used a more powerful gun, he wouldn't have lasted long enough to get treatment and the attempt would have been successful.* Jacqueline's pearl-handed pistol from ''DeathOnTheNile'' is referred to several times as "a toy," but it's also made clear that it's a lethal weapon and Jackie (or someone else) is perfectly capable of killing someone with it.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]* An episode of ''Series/{{Mash}}'' focused on negotiating a prisoner exchange with the Chinese. One condition of the exchange was that the Americans had to come unarmed, but Margaret gave Frank a tiny pistol to carry in case he needed it. When the Chinese realized that the agreement had been broken they were ready to call the whole thing off, but when they actually saw the pistol in question they laughed it off as a joke. This is slightly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] since the Chinese soldiers are heavily armed with automatic weapons.* In an episode of ''Series/SledgeHammer'', the hero's iconic HandCannon is taken away from him, and he's forced to carry a pistol that is so tiny that he holds it in two fingers to shoot and it's so underpowered, the tiny bullets don't go anywhere near the target. They fall right in front of Sledge like shiny confetti.* Averted in a conversation in ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''. The team is discussing a murder that took place, where the victim was shot with a [[HandCannon .44]]. Munch reckons that the large calibre weapon is strictly for an amateur who is CompensatingForSomething and reckons that a professional would go for two head shots with a .22.* Averted in ''Series/BurnNotice'', where Michael's fellow burned-and-blackmailed-spy Victor favors a .22 semiautomatic that in his first scene, he threatens Michael's crotch with [[ItMakesSenseInContext (Michael was threatening Victor's radial artery with a chess piece at the time)]]. He explains that the bullet probably ricochet around Michael's groin and likely nick his femoral artery.--> '''Victor:''' Now, I'm no expert, but I think ''you'' bleed out first.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]* Inevitable in TabletopGames that don't have bleeding rules. Low-caliber guns have the worst damage of any weapon on a typical gun list.** In ''{{GURPS}}'' the .22 Derringer has almost no chance of killing someone unless you shoot them a ''dozen'' times (or hit them [[SubsystemDamage in the brain]]), although an incredibly lucky shot could be dangerous.* A common belief held by the Orks of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', who follow the rules of BiggerIsBetter and MoreDakka.** Averted by many other factions, digital weapons (that fit on a finger) are very much effective and in use by Inquisitors and nobles.** The standard issue Imperial Guard flashlight- uh, I mean Lasgun gets this treatment in the fandom. Lasguns are actually described as being powerful enough to blow a man's arm off, or sear a clean hole straight through a man's head, but in-game, they have a rather puny Strength stat of 3. [[SuperPowerLottery That speaks more about the other factions, really]]. However, 40 Guardsmen in a squad in Rapid Fire range with the "First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire" order can pump out a mind-blowing ''[[BeamSpam 120 shots]]''. There's only so many armour saves you can reliably pass, xenos filth.* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. Light and holdout pistols did Light damage, which on average resulted in one box of Physical damage. Characters could take 10 boxes of Physical damage before they even started to bleed out, and could take a number of additional boxes equal to their Body attribute before finally dying. In other words, to kill someone with a small pistol you'd have to hit them 10 times before they were even at risk of dying, and even then death wasn't inevitable if any form of healing was available.** Of course, in 2nd and 3rd Editions, given the [[MinMax skill level]] of the average runner, between the combat pool and the [[GameBreaker smartlink]], getting half a dozen net successes against an unarmored target to stage the damage up from Light to Deadly was hardly out of the question.** In 4th Edition, they're more powerful - now they deal only 1 point of damage less than Heavy Pistols and are a little less effective against armor.* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'''s tabletop RPG spinoff ''Mechwarrior'' has this. The hold-out pistol is a bit of a joke, with a pathetic range of 10 meters and can be out-damaged by a basic small crossbow that's even cheaper than the pistol and yet reaches to 50 meters. The much more expensive Myrdon pistol actually reaches to 60 meters, but does no more damage than the standard pistol, made up for slightly by carrying 20 rounds in its magazine. The needler gun and hold-out needler, while even weaker in terms of raw damage potential, avert this trope by being ruled as [[ArmorPiercingAttack completely going through normal armor]] and dealing their damage directly to the target, something the aforementioned pistols cannot do. The fact that needler shots are also fluffed as being incredibly difficult wounds to treat and heal can also be a problem for anyone attempting life-saving procedures, helping steer these weapons out of the 'useless' category. The same can be said of the hold-outflamer pistol. The initial damage is hardly anything speak of, but the fact that ''you are now on fire'' kind of makes up for any shortcomings--no forms of standard infantry armor provide protection against being burned to death.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]* It's unclear what caliber everything is in {{VideoGame/Borderlands}} (And it wouldn't matter anyway) but almost every automatic certainly fits this, doing pitiful damage compared to [[RevolversAreJustBetter your average revolver]], which the wiki refers to as [[HandCannon "A hybrid of pistols and sniper rifles"]]. Possibly more a case of Automatics are Useless.* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has only two weapons that use .22LR ammunition; a silenced .22 pistol and a silenced .22 SMG. They both have free silencers and high critical chance, but do such low damage you'd be better off smacking your foe with a bit of pipe. ''[[NotHyperbole Literally]]'': these guns have base damage of 9 and 10- a BB Gun has a base of 4, a lead pipe has a base of 22, and the high end automatic weapons are in the 30s or 40s. The 9mm pistol doesn't fare much better, with a base of 16.** However, the complete silence of the .22 makes it great for assassinations since if you can find a dark corner to hide in you can kill a target in the middle of a crowded room without anyone noticing, and the combination of high critical rate, double crit damage, high accuracy, and low AP cost means that you can take down an unarmored target with headshots almost as easily as with your big hand-cannons. Not to mention that it's the only gun that you can take in places where weapons are forbidden without a high sneak skill. There is even an achievement you get for scoring a killing blow on a deathclaw, one of the toughest predators in the wasteland, with the .22 pistol.** The .22 SMG however, is quite useful. It mostly negates it low damage with high rate of fire and a very large pan magazine, in addition of having a silencer by default. It can deal with most low DT enemies through DeathOfAThousandCuts.** .22LR ammo is rather scarce however, since very few enemies carry it and it can't be built at a reloading bench, though what supply vendors have it very cheap. 9mm ammo in comparison, is much more common, as are other 9mm pistols you'll need to [[BreakableWeapons repair yours]] for most of the game.** Benny makes a reference to this if you manage to talk to him in private once you catch up to him - he asks upfront how you're still alive after he shot you in the face, and if you tell him you're just that hard to kill, he jokes that it "serves me right for using a 9mm".* The weakest gun in ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' tends to be a standard or customized Beretta (the Beretta 92F in most of the games, the 92F Inox in the director's cut of the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil first game]], and the 93R in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica''). In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'', it's replaced with the 909, being the starting weapon for both Chris and Jake.** In a bit of irony, the Derringer you find in the first game's remake is powerful enough to kill anything that's not a boss in one bullet - lucky given that that's all you get for it.* The [[AKA47 SC Pistol]] from ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'', while offering a ''20 round'' magazine, has pathetically little stopping power and even a headshot is not a guaranteed kill. TruthInTelevision, particularly if using [[ArmorPiercingAttack armor piercing]] rounds[[note]]As a rule, armor piercing qualities and stopping power are on opposite ends of a sliding scale, and in most cases emphasizing one will decrease the other.[[/note]], as Fisher is using SB 193 subsonic rounds, which greatly reduce armour-piercing capabilities as well as over all stopping power in favor of making it easier to silence the gun.* ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}} Contracts'' has the [=SG220=], a pistol with a seven round magazine and almost no stopping power. It is, however, very quiet.** ''Silent Assassin'' also had the Makarov and .22 pistols, both of which had little stopping power. The .22 is just about the only gun in any of the games that doesn't always kill with a single headshot -- you can perforate a man's brain with this gun and it will just make him mad.* The Derringer in ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarez'' is typical of this trope.* The [=PS20=] in the original ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' is an energy weapon example. A one-shot plasma derringer, it can't even one-shot basic mooks from point blank range with a headshot (and you're, for some reason, restricted from carrying more than one at a time), defeating its purpose entirely.* ''VideoGame/AlienShooter Vengeance'' has several of these thanks to the SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness. Early guns are, naturally, fairly weak, but there is something rather off about a gun explicitly stated to be a Colt .45 Peacemaker being only marginally more powerful than a [[NailEm nail gun]] and demonstrably inferior in power to a Makarov PM or a FlareGun. Equally odd is that a TEC-9 AKA47'd as the KG-9 is ''even weaker'' than the nail gun!* ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' ironically manages this with a 7.62mm battle rifle, the UNSC [=MA5B=] Assault Rifle. It's looked down upon as it requires emptying its whole magazine to take down a fully-shielded enemy, and almost every truly dangerous target you can shoot with it will be shielded.** ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' has the M7 caseless submachine gun meant as a replacement for the aforementioned assault rifle - same mag size, same rate of fire, same (lack of) accuracy, same horrible damage against anything more threatening than a Grunt. Part of the issue seems to have been due to the addition of GunsAkimbo for this game - the SMG is clearly designed to be used two at a time, so it's absolutely worthless when used on its own.* ''VideoGame/XCom: Terror From The Deep'' will start players with dart and harpoon based weapons, among other things. The dart pistol is weak to the point of uselessness. It does so little damage that Aquatoids, the weakest starting enemies, will take at least three direct hits to bring them down, whereas the harpoon rifle will often drop an Aquatoid where it stands after just one shot. For the price of the dart pistol and a single clip of 12 darts, you might as well buy three grenades and actually ''kill'' some of the aliens instead.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had an episode where they were parodying Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer; they get involved in a bar room shootout and proceed to sit there calmly while derringer bullets bounce off the furniture, the glasses holding their beer, and their skin/eyes.** Another, showing a scene from [[ShowWithinAShow McBain]] portrayed [[DaChief his superior]] attempting to get him to surrender his HandCannon for something smaller. [=McBain=] asks how he is supposed to avenge his partner with a pea shooter. When the chief tells him he is supposed to do things by the book, he shoots it, quipping "Bye, book".* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Drip-Along Daffy", where burly outlaw Nasty Canasta is felled by a wind-up toy soldier whose tiny rifle packs a surprising amount of heat. Had Canasta [[TemptingFate not picked it up and raised it at face level to laugh at it]], he might have gotten off easy.* In the ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack'' animated series, the opening sequence shows Jay drawing the Noisy Cricket (pictured above) out of his jacket and Kay giving it a skeptical side-eye.* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2021}}'', Captain Murphy gives a baby a real, loaded pistol as part of a [[YouMeanXmas Feast of Alvis]] pageant. When the baby's mother complains, he tells her to relax, it's only a .22, couldn't hurt a flea.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]* The Israeli Defense Force once supplied its troops with a Ruger 10/22 as a "less than lethal" sniper weapon. Reality (and a judge and a number of dead bodies) eventually forced them to remove the classification.* "Stopping Power" doesn't necessarily translate to lethality, but it's still an important factor in choosing a defensive firearm. In such an event, the objective is to stop the immediate threat as soon as possible, and a bigger bullet generally translates to more energy transferred to the target, increasing the likelihood that the attacker will be incapacitated quickly. Nobody's saying that small calibers are harmless, but there's a reason no police departments issue .25 caliber sidearms to their officers.** Especially since the goal of a gun fight is not to ensure your attacker dies, but to ensure ''you'' live. It doesn't really matter if the bad guy dies if he ends you in a brutal fashion before finally dying. The solution is to keep shooting them until they stop. In a defensive situation, it behooves you not to have to wait an hour for your assailant to bleed to death. This is in large part why (in the USA at least) police departments stopped using the .38 as their service weapon in the early '90s. It was not so much for reasons of lethality, for 9x19 and .38 Special are very similar in terms of actual performance, so much as it was that modern 9mm pistols offered wonderful advantages in terms of firepower (an average of 6 shots vs an average of 15 shots), ease of use (sights and triggers tend to be more user friendly on pistols), and companies like Glock and Beretta were just hurling the things at them (which made the damn things irresistible bargains). As Massad Ayoob wrote in his book ''In The Gravest Extreme'', the purpose of using a defensive gun is to stop someone from hurting you. Any bullet can kill someone, but it can't reliably stop them.** That said however, getting shot in a not-immediately-lethal fashion will still make your average would-be robber reconsider their options (not to mention hurt like hell), so smaller calibres can be surprisingly effective as pure self-defence weapons. Don't ''count'' on this, though: due to stress of the situation and adrenaline, you might well kill them by emptying the magazine OR they might retaliate if you wound them.** Considering that a significant majority (over 80% by many accounts) of firearm self-defense cases involve simply scaring the punk away, it's obvious there's no such thing as a truly useless gun in that context. Better and worse, maybe, but nothing is useless and nothing is guaranteed.** Finally, when it comes to factors affecting lethality, there's a clear pattern. Hit location and bullet path are more important than velocity, and velocity is more important than caliber. However, the problem is an injury can be lethal days later, as the injured person enters [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_organ_dysfunction_syndrome Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome]], tension pneumothorax, cardiac tamponade, organ failure, or secondary infection, especially in abdominal injury. Additionally, permanent disability is also best predicted based on what was hit. The problem is that doesn't mean that that fatal injury will stop an aggressor from shooting back immediately after your bullet has dealt the lethal injury.* All the above notwithstanding, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Standard_HDM High Standard HDM]] and similar firearms are still widely used by Special Forces; .22LR has almost negligible recoil and muzzle climb compared to common calibres for service sidearms, it's very easy to reduce its sound signature and it can be obtained in every country in the world.* Ladies and Germs, behold the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_mm_Kolibri Kolibri pistol]]. With a '''2.7mm''' caliber, smoothbore barrel and maximum of 1.5 inches of penetration in pine board, we have a sterling real life example of a LittleUselessGun. Strong language would've protected you better than this pea shooter. By the way, the inventor of the tiny pistol [[UnfortunateImplications intended it for women]].** That must be the only gun that is potentially more lethal if you ''throw'' it.** To get a sense of the energy coming out of one of these, a heavy (0.43g) airsoft pellet traveling at 120m/s (for high end models) is roughly 3/4's the energy of the bullet coming out of a Kolibri.* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator FP-45 Liberator]]. This pistol was intended to be dropped in large quantities into France during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII for use by LaResistance, the idea being that they could use it to pop an occupying soldier and then acquire his weapon. Stopping power wasn't necessarily the problem (it was chambered for the beefy .45 ACP round, and poor accuracy due to the non-rifled barrel wasn't a problem at point-blank range), but its range was pitiful and the gun itself could be built more quickly than it could be reloaded. It was often described as "a great weapon with which to obtain another weapon". Since they were meant to be [[ThrowAwayGuns disposable]], Liberators were not in any way built to last. Thus despite one million being produced, few original Liberators still exist.** Its successor, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_gun the Deer Gun]] was chambered for 9mm and intended for use in Vietnam. The idea was scrapped when the conflict escalated into a full scale war. Like the Liberator, it is now considered a collector's item, putting it square into the RareGuns category.** In addition to actual use resistance fighters, it was considered inevitable that German soldiers would recover some of the Liberators, thus finding out what was going on. But this was [[AllAccordingToPlan all part of the plan]]. While the Nazis would know that small, easily-concealable pistols were being dropped into occupied territory, they'd also know that they could never be able to confirm they'd found or confiscated ''all'' of them. Thus, [[ParanoiaFuel any civilian they saw might have one in his pocket, waiting to shoot them in the back once they walked by]].* Scientists are researching the possibility of [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke genetically engineering]] humans with spider silk in their skin instead of keratin. They believe this would make the skin tough enough to resist .22LR bullets, rendering guns of that calibre fairly useless at killing people.* Subverted in the case of PerrySaturn. He came across two men attempting to rape a woman and fought them off, having received what he thought was a punch. Turns out, he'd been shot with a .25 pistol. While he survived, he was forced to retire from wrestling for a number of years, as doctors refused to clear him medically.* Averted by the NKVD under Joseph Stalin, which used .25 ACP as its caliber of choice for executing their prisoners. Admittedly, they shot unresisting victims in the backs of their necks, which is a kinda vulnerable spot you'll never hit in real combat.* The whole reason for the US Military's adoption of the Colt 1911. During the Phillipines War, the .38 Long Colt revolvers they had been using were ineffective against charging tribesmen, who would shrug off several rounds.** This is also part of the reason why the US Army switching from the M1911 to the Beretta 92FS on NATO's suggestion in the 1980's was such a controversial move - critics were disparaging of the Beretta's smaller 9mm caliber compared to the beefy .45 ACP they'd been using for close to a century. Of course, this is not taking into account that 9mm has better penetration and longer range than .45, but given [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns several other (self-inflicted) issues with the gun (that have since been fixed)]], it's still generally seen as worthless in military use.* Several Emergency Room Doctors have said never use a .22 caliber to kill yourself. You'll usually miss since your hand is shaking and just cause yourself brain damage. One doctor had a guy that was shooting himself from below the jaw, and had the bullet enter into his head, travel along to the jawline, and exit out behind the guy's ear. They didn't even have to put stitches in him.* Then there's the case of [[http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/2nd_Amend/no_honest_citizen_needs_a_gun.htm Sammie Foust]], who shot her assailant four times with a .25. He took ''an hour'' to bleed out, during which he beat the living crap out of her. She survived... barely.* An interview with a veteran Australian policewoman had her saying how female officers used to be trained on a .22 automatic 'ladies gun' instead of the issue .38 special revolver. The weapon was useless not because of its low calibre, but because it kept jamming all the time.* Small-calibre ammunition is not always less powerful. The 5.56x45mm NATO round, as used in the AR-15 and M4, is of equal calibre to the .22 rimfire, but is twice as heavy and has twice the muzzle velocity of the .22, giving it power comparable to the .44 Magnum round. Of course, considering that most pistols chambered in 5.56 are [[HandCannon Hand Cannons]] (example [[http://www.sigsauer.com/CatalogProductDetails/p556-pistol.aspx here]]) because the casings of 5.56mm rounds are significantly longer than pistol calibre rounds (and, therefore have more propellant), this trope might not exactly be in effect...[[/folder]]